by Wakeley Paul, Esq., December 21, 2004 In December, 2000 the LTTE declared a unilateral ceasefire. Four months of negotiations toward a mutual ceasefire with the President’s PA government came to nought. In July, 2001 the LTTE attacked the Katunayake Airport, but followed this up with a second unilateral ceasefire. In late 2001, Ranil Wickremesinghe’s… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Politics
Revisiting Rwanda’s Horrors
With an Ex-National Security Adviser By JOHN DARNTON, The New York Times, December 20, 2004 It was “shameful,” he added, that his administration refused to employ the term “genocide” for a period of six weeks. “It was based on the belief that if you used the word, then you’re required to take action,” he said…. Read more »
Going Nowhere
by Sunday Leader Editorial, December 5, 2004 Sri Lanka’s tragic fate took yet another twist last week, with the government demonstrating yet again that it doesn’t have a clue what it is going to do to address the National Question. Two and a half years after the event, the international euphoria that greeted the government-LTTE ceasefire agreement… Read more »
TAGOT: War Drums in the South
by The Action Group of Tamils (TAGOT) PRESS RELEASE 21 December 2004 We, The Action Group of Tamils (TAGOT), unhesitatingly compliment the Sinhala President Chandrika Kumaratunga for her political skill. She is implacably opposed to negotiating a political settlement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). But she has cast the ultra-Sinhala Jathika Vimukthi… Read more »
Human Rights Watch and Tamil Children
by S. Makenthiran, B.A., FCCA, Canada, December 19, 2004 There have been some reports by interested parties about the so-called seminar held on December 12, by Human Rights Watch in Toronto. It is made to appear that those who spoke out at the Seminar were Tamil Tigers. It was nothing like that. Many of us… Read more »
Talking with Tigers
Negotiations with suicide bombers can end violence, as Sri Lanka demonstrates Jonathan Steele in Kilinochchi, The Guardian, UK, Friday December 17, 2004 Come to Elephant Pass to witness a rarity: a place where the contradictions of the “war on terror” have not produced the usual regression. In most of the world the fight against “international… Read more »
India’s Sri Lanka Policy: Need for a Review
by Ana Pararajasingham, South Asia Analysis Group, Delhi, December 13, 2004 It is only natural that India, the regional power, should have an abiding interest in the manner in which the conflict in the Island of Sri Lanka is resolved. The Tamil National Alliance MP, Mr Gajendra kumar Ponnambalam’s declaration that the Tamil Nation has… Read more »
IFT Dec. 10 Press Release
8 Rue Des Pâquis, 1201 Geneva, Switzerland – Tel/Fax: +41 22 732 08 31 – Email:ift /A_T/ bluewin /D_O_T/ ch 10.12.2004 Urgent press statement Government’s suggestions sabotaging the Tamil people’s struggle for equlity and justice International Federation of Tamils (IFT), a confederation of Tamil organizations around the world, urges the President of Sri… Read more »
Child Soldiers and Sunny Beaches
by Ravi Gowribalan, December 16, 2004 Many Tamils once believed that the Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) play an important role in helping the people in the war-affected areas of Tamil Eelam. During the ceasefire, we have seen a dramatic upsurge in the number of international NGOs in Tamil areas and their interest in Tamil affairs… Read more »
Contempt of Court
by Wakeley Paul, Esq., December 16, 2004 The decision of the Sri Lankan Supreme Court Of Sri Lanka finding a politician guilty of contempt, clearly indicates that the Sri Lankan Constitution does not guarantee freedom of speech, a concept which was never referred to in the court’s judgment. One must, however, realize that there were… Read more »
The International Community & Tamils
The True Face of the International Community & a Rational Response from the Tamils of Eelam by Siva Muthulingasamy, UK, December 16, 2004 The International Community(IC) is all united by just one common objective, a World Trade monopoly. They work in partnership with the US, like “the good cop bad cop” duo in a Hollywood… Read more »
Seminar on The Indian Subcontinent: The Global Perspective
World Tamil Organization proudly presents a seminar loaded with much for serious and curious minds on Saturday, December 11th, 2004 All Day Event from 11:00 AM at Center Hall, Busch Campus Center Rutgers University 604 Bartholomew Rd, Piscataway, NJ 08854 Participants: Keynote Address by Durai. Raja, New Delhi Mr. Raja is the current national (central)… Read more »
The Bandaranaike Contribution to the Nation’s Fate
By Wakeley Paul, Esq., December 4, 2004 Anura Bandaranaike’s self-aggrandizing views of his family’s contribution toward the success of a failed nation, published in the Daily News, call for a rational review. His claim that no family has shed its blood for the nation’s advancement like the Bandaranaikes have should read, instead, that no family has… Read more »
A Rigged Dialogue with Civil Society
by Charlemagne, The Economist, London, October 2004 Does any of this sound familiar from the NGOs that comment and try to influence ‘ethnic’ affairs in Sri Lanka? — Editor How independent are the civil-society organisations beloved by the European Commission? THE European Commission knows it has an image problem. To try to fix things, it… Read more »
America and Sri Lanka
by M. Nadarajan, December 4, 2004 Those of us who live in the United States of America, arguably the greatest country in the world and certainly the richest country, take a lot of things for granted. America also claims to be the most democratic country in the world, and preaches to the world about how… Read more »
Interview with Graham Allen MP
for Nottingham North Confluence: You led an all party Parliamentary delegation to Sri Lanka recently. Can you give us a broad brush picture of the current state of play in the peace process in that country as you observed it? Graham Allen: We were pleased to see that most political parties are getting involved in the peace… Read more »
Sethusamuderam Project: Economic & Environmental Impact
Reasons for the Construction of the Canal and its Economic & Environmental Impact on Sri Lanka by Donald Jayantha Gnanakone, Los Angeles, December 2, 2004 The past three months has seen such a flurry of activity and controversy never seen before in Sri Lanka, since the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka Pact by Rajiv Gandhi… Read more »
Letter from a Youth to the LTTE
Dear Mr V. Prabakaran, Mr S.P Thamilchelvan and the other Officials of the East and North of the LTTE, This is a statement of a student, age 18 (Social Juridical Worker / Low Lawyer) of the Royal Kingdom of The Netherlands. At the first place I want to congratulate all of you with achieving and… Read more »
Rebuttal to H.L. de Silva’s views on the ISGA
I in ISGA is for Interim Self-Governing Authority by Prof. C. Suriyakumaran, Sunday Observer, Colombo, November 21, 2005 sangam.org/articles/view2/670.html H.L. de Silva PC, in his denunciations of the LTTE-proposed ISGA on the occasion of the launching of S.L. Gunasekera’s ‘Abomination’, has allowed the ‘authorship’ of the ISGA and the politics of its follow up, like… Read more »
We Have to Live a Language to Use it
by Janadas Devan, The Straits Times, Singapore, November 29, 2004 ‘THO’ I call them Mine, I know that they are not Mine.’ The English critic F.R. Leavis liked to cite that remark of William Blake about his works to point to the essential impersonality of literature: Blake ‘meant that when the artist is creatively successful,… Read more »